Chapter 389 Duality
Seeing his desperate look, Gu Chan couldn't help rolling her eyes and said with a sly expression, "I ask you, do you really think it doesn't matter if you don't become the county magistrate? You just don't want to Do you want someone like that to be the county magistrate?"
"Of course, you see, I have only been in my forty years and I am already so haggard. To be honest, I have not wanted to be this official for a long time. "Now, wouldn't it be great to take my whole family back to the countryside? It's hard to be an upright official in this world, and I'm already tired," Gu Qifeng said sincerely.
"Then you should take over his Nanxian King's army now. Hurry up and hand over your official hat, uniform and official seal to me, and then leave with all the valuable things in the Yamen. By the way, take all the Yamen's silver treasury." Evacuate it and tell the public that the superiors appreciate your efforts for Nancheng over the years and specially reward you." Gu Chan said with a smirk.
Gu Qifeng was stunned on the spot. Monk Zhang Er was really confused.
After being an official for so many years, he had a clean mind and did not dare to embezzle any money from the yamen. Most of the money was spent on the construction of Nancheng and the people, and he lived a very poor life.
Now that Gu Chan wants him to empty out the Yamen, he really has a hard time with his conscience.
Gu Chan said angrily, "Even if you go back to the countryside in the future, you will still need money to support your family. For a good official like you, I can't let you have no money to support your old age. This is not the case in the Yamen now. My son, you deserve it. Who dares to say anything wrong about you?"
"But..."
"Okay, stop talking, I'm an imperial envoy, that's what I mean? Your Majesty, hurry up and clean up. We'll eat here and wait for you." Gu Chan interrupted Gu Qifeng without giving him a chance to speak.
When Gu Qifeng heard this, he reluctantly got up and left. Then he took his wife and all the maids and servants to pack their luggage.
Gu Chan then told Ma Zheng to sit down, and the two of them ate, chatted and waited.
After about an hour, Gu Qifeng took all the family members in the yamen, a total of more than 20 people, and all came to wait outside the pavilion.
Then he came to Gu Chan with an account book and said, "Master Gu, this is the account book from the yamen. During my tenure, I did not lose a single tael of silver, and the previous county magistrate's deficit was even greater. Everything has been patched up, and everything I took away has been recorded. Please take a closer look."
"Okay, let me take a look," Gu Chan said with satisfaction.
After saying that, she reached out and took the account book, opened it, and looked down at it carefully.
Just after checking it, she suddenly felt distressed!
Every account in this account book is recorded very clearly, and at the end of the account book, it is recorded that in addition to taking away some furniture and quilts, Gu Qifeng took away a total of 9,000 yuan. Three hundred and twenty-five taels of silver.
This means that he has been an official for so many years and does not even have ten thousand taels of silver in savings. You must know that in Tiancang Kingdom, a small country with such high prices, a dignified county magistrate , and in the end, I didn’t even have ten thousand taels of silver. What kind of concept is this?
Gu Qifeng silently folded the official hat, official uniform, official seal, and the county magistrate's three-piece set and placed them on the stone table in front of Gu Chan.
Then he looked at Gu Chan and sighed and said, "Master Gu, after I leave, I hope you can choose someone to be the new county magistrate. In the future, I will leave the people of Nancheng to you. For the safety of the whole family, I will This is the only choice I can make."
"Ma Zheng, go to Yuanlai Inn and bring over 50,000 taels of silver," Gu Chan ordered with a solemn expression after collecting the account book.
Ma Zheng nodded, quickly got up and ran out. Seeing this, Gu Qifeng couldn't help but ask, "Master Gu, what are you doing?"
"Don't worry about it, sit down and wait! It just so happens that we can talk again, you can give me more I'll tell you some specifics about the situation in Nancheng so that I can see how to deal with Prince Nanxian and his son in the future," Gu Chan said with a smile.
Gu Qifeng quickly sat down and kept telling her many details about Nancheng.
It was through his narration that Gu Chan finally learned about many unknown details in Nancheng, including some of the shameful things that Prince Nanxian and his son had done in private. .
In the end, Gu Chan could only come to one conclusion.
That is, Prince Nanxian and his son are definitely not good people, but from another perspective, they are not heinous people who commit great crimes.
After all, everything they do here is just to stabilize their position. If it is really said that they have done anything to harm the people, they have not done it. On the contrary, they are punishing those evil people. In this regard, they have made certain contributions.
No, at the end of Gu Qifeng's words, he sighed and said, "Although I was at odds with the father and son in the past, I also know that as relatives of the emperor, it is normal for them to consolidate their status here. , as long as they don’t do anything to harm the people, I can still understand it, but now they want to attack me, which really makes me feel uncomfortable.”
“Everything has two sides, this is normal. , No matter how great a person is, they will never make mistakes. This is the most direct reason why I didn't want to get rid of them at Qixingmen yesterday," Gu Chan said with emotion.
Gu Qifeng nodded noncommittally.
Gu Chan was about to speak, when Ma Zheng, who went to get the banknote, finally came back.
Running into the pavilion, Ma Zheng handed the small brocade box containing fifty thousand taels of silver notes into Gu Chan's hands.
Gu Chan opened the little brocade box and counted it. After confirming that it was a sufficient amount of fifty thousand taels of silver notes, she handed it to Gu Qifeng and said, "Master Gu, the emperor asked me to reward you with this. He already knew it. You have made great contributions to the people in Nancheng for so many years, so you asked me to bring this money to you."
"Oh my god! Could it be that the emperor has been paying attention to me secretly all the time? Mr. Gu, is this what the emperor means when you ask me to resign and join Nan Xian Wang's army?" Gu Qifeng said in surprise.
Gu Chan laughed, covering up his embarrassment and said, "That's natural. The emperor is well aware of the upright officials in Tiancang Kingdom. I deliberately took a detour to Nancheng because the emperor secretly asked me to protect your family. Your little life is safe, so don’t think too much about it now. Thank you for your kindness, take this silver reward, and go with your family!”
“I thank you for your kindness. Long live my emperor! Long live." Gu Qifeng was moved to tears and fell to the ground holding the little brocade box, kowtowing to Gu Chan to thank him.
Gu Chan hurriedly stretched out her hand to lift him up and comfort him.
After he calmed down, she took Ma Zheng and sent the whole family quietly out of the back door of the county government office.
After they left, Gu and Chan returned to the pavilion in the back garden and sat down. They both felt in their hearts that it was really not easy to be an upright official in this world.